We've all heard about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. As many as 80 people are dead, and tens of thousands more affected. Overall damage may exceed $25 billion. The New Orleans paper's site recounts this in vivid detail.

This is a real disaster, and you can help. Consider a donation to the Red Cross or similar organization.

Sunday, August 28

The DVD set of season 4 of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm!" drops Tuesday. This batch is not as strong as others, mostly because it takes a joke worth one episode (Larry David cast as the star of "The Producers!") and goes with it for duration of the season. But there's still enough there to make it worthwhile.

The current issue of Esquire has a great feature by a writer who outsources all of his personal chores -- paying bills, ordering from Amazon, reading to his child, arguing with his wife -- to firms in India. You need an actual tree-based subscription to the magazine to read it online, but it's definitely worth picking up on the stands.

Bill Maher on a scarily relevant topic -- the impending bursting of the housing market bubble. Jody and I bought just as the bubble was starting to swell out of controll, so I don't think our house will fall back much under what we paid for it. However, we're looking to refinance -- though not to pull any money out of the house, just to consolidate our second mortgage and bring our monthly nut down a bit, as well as lock in a low interest rate. The icky thing is that if we get the house re-appraised at this point, our property tax will probably go up by 5-10K a year!

Wednesday, August 24

An U.S. Army vet who happens to be a Palestinian gets a credit card offer from JP Morgan Chase addressed to "Palestinian Bomber." When he calls in to complain, customer service responds by calling him "Mr. Bomber." D'oh!

I had a dream that I was making out with Tina Fey. She had recently moved from her job at SNL to the news department at E! I'm not sure which was the lower point for her. Even though it was my dream, I could tell the whole thing was pretty distasteful for her.

How sad is it when even in your own dream, Tina Fey thinks kissing you is gross?

Steve Carell of TV's "The Daily Show" is up to the task of playing the titular role. (If the adjective "titular" makes you snicker, you will love this movie.) His buddies are the usual Hollywood mix: the street-wise guy, the sensitive guy, the stoner guy. Plus, there's the obligatory nutty/slutty boss and a few foul-mouthed foreigners. Catherine Keener of "Being John Malkovich!" fame plays the virgin's love interest, adding a touch of class to the production.

The movie plays out as one might expect: the establishment of the virgin as a total nerd but nice guy; his outing as a sexual novice; the friends' efforts to hook him up through bars and speed dating; the virgin's tortured path between easy and unpleasant sex and a meaningful first experience. There are plenty of laughs along the way, such as when our hero attempts to don a condom.

At the screening I saw, a fellow movie-goer decided that this was going to be an interactive experience. He responded to nearly every over-the-top joke by blurting out "Oh my Lord!" At one point he announced, "I am learning so much from this movie." And he sang along with the various cheeseball songs on the soundtrack, including Asia's "Heat of the Moment." His comments provided a sort of laugh track. After the lights came up, it was apparent that this film fan was about 16 years old, and that his mother was accompanying him. D'oh!DULLARD RATING"Virgin" on its own: So-so."Virgin" with live commentary track from a teenager: Rocked!

Saturday, August 20

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes were blasted into the sky in a fireworks display (not exactly a cannon, as previously reported here) in a ceremony in Colorado on Saturday. Sean Penn, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp represented.

Thursday, August 18

Not a big stretch on even my best days, I know. But I have entirely no clue what our objective is in Iraq anymore, and wish someone would explain it to me. Forget the rhetoric of "Noble Causes," how do we know when we've "won"?

Now that the Iraq war is about "terrorism" instead of WMDs, mushroom clouds, liberating the Iraqi people, whatever the last thing they test-marketed is, do we "win" by whacking the final terrorist mole? 'Cause they're making more, y'know.

Do we "win" when Iraq has a stable government again? It looks at this point like an Islamic Republic is the best we can hope for -- does that count? Once there's a sovereign government in place, do we then withdraw all of our troops?

No, not even if they say "please?"

So, does winning equal having troops in Iraq indefinitely? That sounds like losing to me.

Monday, August 15

Friday night will be your last chance to catch Ghost Town this summer, and last chance to see the current line-up, as we go on a short gigging hiatus to make a few changes. If you haven't seen the band yet, you should definitely make the show on Friday, as the current lineup kicks bootay. And you have no excuse not to come, as it's a FREE show at the very trendy Plush Lounge inside the even-trendier Key Club.

We start promptly at nine, and are sharing the bill with Borne, Tomorrow's Cry, and Innocent Noise. Please come see what a great band this is, and make sure you tell the doorman that you're there to see Ghost Town!

She's going to have to work a lot harder and be a lot less PC to offend me. Maybe if she had complained about midgets stopping in themepark crowds or a black kid who she couldn't figure out if it were a boy or girl...or for that matter, any way to differentiate them from any other black kid in the world.

Bush, on why he won't meet with a grieving mother: "I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

Adrian Belew, Dweezil Zappa, Tommy Shaw of Styx fame, Fee Waybill of the Tubes and various members of Yes are teaming up for a tribute album for Pink Floyd's "The Wall." Malcolm McDowell of "A Clockwork Orange" is also involved. "Back Against the Wall" drops Sept. 27.

He just missed this time around, after deciding to test whether the netting behind homeplate in Yankee Stadium could support his weight after jumping from an uppder deck. But he's young. I have a feeling he'll be immortalized someday.

Tuesday, August 9

The NYT uses the 10th anniversary of the biggest Deadhead's demise to get us up to date on why the Dead still haven't gone away (as much as some of us wish they would). That's thanks to an endless stream of remastered CDs, DVDs and whatnot as well as Cherry Garcia ice cream and Jerry Garcia neckties. Says guitarist Bob Weir:

I'm a big fan of John Coltrane, and I never saw him live. I don't want to put us on that level, but we don't play all of this music casually or callously, and of course Jerry would appreciate people being able to experience it.

Besides that annoying quote, the article also describes the Dead as "seminal" -- one of the most overused adjectives in describing music. I'm surprised that got by the NYT copy desk.

Monday, August 8

Saturday, August 6

While Mr. Biron meets women by the dozens, that creates another problem, keeping track of them. In his office he stood up from his chair, plunged his hands into his pockets and pulled out a clump of paper in each fist, business cards and napkin scraps with scrawled phone numbers. He opened his fingers, and the scraps fluttered onto his desk. "My God!" Mr. Biron declared. "Who are these people?"

Thursday, August 4

A frail Don Knotts -- known to some as Barney Fife and others as Mr. Furley -- cannot attend a festival in his honor in his hometown of Morgantown, W.Va. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it," the 81-year-old actor said.

Bob Novak swears at James Carville and stalks off the set at CNN. You can see the clip on ifilm.com and probably other places on the Internets. (The unaltered image here is from an earlier, semi-rational appearance on "Meet the Press.")

What's up with porn in the woods? It's apparently a widespread phenomenon, or at least it was when I was a kid. There was no real secret in our house where Dad's Penthouses were stashed, but somehow the porn in the woods was just a little more exciting. Because it was illicit. And because it was battered old copies of Hustler and Oui, much skankier porn than Penthouse -- which at that time was only slightly dirtier than Playboy.

It must be a rather different experience to be a kid today, where you don't have to try very hard to get porn. Somehow I imagine the experience isn't quite as guilt-ridden -- and by "guilt-ridden" of course I mean "fun."

I have no idea who left all that porn in the woods when we were kids, but I'd like to shake his hand.